(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display and a manufacturing method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a liquid crystal display that more uniformly maintains a cell gap and improves adherence between two display panels, as well as manufacturing methods thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (hereinafter referred to as an LCD) is one of the most widely used types of flat panel displays. An LCD typically includes two display panels provided with electric field generating electrodes, such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the two display panels. In the LCD, voltages are applied to the electric field generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the liquid crystal layer. Due to the generated electric field, liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer are aligned, which controls polarization of incident light, thereby displaying images.
In a liquid crystal display, an upper panel and a lower panel are typically combined by a sealant, which is disposed on an edge circumference of the upper panel and the lower panel and which encloses the liquid crystal layer. Also, an interval between two display panels, that is, a cell gap, may be relatively uniformly maintained by a spacer disposed between the upper panel and the lower panel.
Here, the spacer may be classified as bead spacers or column spacers. In general, the bead spacer has a spherical shape and is irregularly dispersed on a substrate, and the column spacer is formed to have a predetermined pattern through a photolithography process.
The bead spacer may be formed without a photolithography process, such that the manufacturing process is simple compared to the column spacer and its manufacturing cost is low. However, its adhesion with substrates is relatively weak, such that it is more difficult to maintain a uniform cell gap when an external force is applied to the liquid crystal display.
A recent trend has seen efforts directed toward development of a flexible display device that may be flexibly bent and rolled. When the flexible display device is manufactured using bead spacers and the substrate is bent, the cell gap is not uniformly maintained, such that a luminance difference in a region is generated. Also, such bending may move the bead spacer, such that an alignment layer disposed on the substrate may be damaged.
Further, when combining the upper panel and the lower panel by only the sealant formed at the edge circumference of the substrate, there is no member fixing the two display panels at the center of the substrate, resulting in a weak bond between the substrates.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that.